I Won an Award!

Yep, that's right, my blog won an award! Thanks to the lovely Juliet Greenwood, whose blog can be found here, my blog has won the Versatile Blogger Award. Yay! I must say I was completely suprised to discover that I had won, but nonetheless it was a lovely suprise.

Now the Versatile Blogger Award has rules and as I'm a stickler for rules, I am duty bound to follow them. The rules are:

1. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to other, recently discovered blogs and let them know about it.

4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

So here are my seven facts about myself:

1) I have a massive fear of snakes. Seriously, I can't even look at a picture of one. I even have to watch I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here with my hands half covering my eyes just in case.

2) Chipped nail varnish really annoys me. As soon as I get the smallest chip, the whole lot comes off and I start again. And I hate seeing chipped polish on other people's nails - my sister is the worst for it!

3) I have never tried coffee. I can't stand the smell of it, and can't bring myself to even attempt to drink it.

4) I have a condition called Costoshondritis.

5) I dislike dark chocolate.

6) I have read every book that Jill Mansell has written (that's 22 to date).

7) I passed my driving test on my third attempt.

And the blogs I am passing the Versatile Blogger Award on to are:

Mama J - who blogs about reading, writing, cake, TV and a whole lot more.

Marcie Steele - who blogs about writing and her journey to self-publication.

Amanda Egan (Mummy Misfit) - who blogs about writing and a whole lot more.

Christmas is coming!

I have somewhat neglected my blog recently - sorry! I have no excuses, so I won't even attempt to come up with one.

Anyway, Christmas is coming. It's just over a month away now and I'm rather looking forward to it. To celebrate, my Twitter and Blog backgrounds have been given a festive make-over. My Christmas shopping is nearly done, although I still have a few bits to get over the next few weeks for a couple of family members who are notoriously hard to buy for. How an earth do you buy gifts for people who don't even know what they want?! It's the male members of my family I always struggle with, and it's not just Christmas I have to think about as they all have birthdays either just before or just after Christmas! I'm sure I'll think of something, though. 

How is everyone else's Christmas shopping coming on? Have you started? Have you finished? Are you panicking about what to buy those more difficult loved ones?

Read of the Month - October

It's November already! How did that happen?

I seem to have somewhat abandoned my blog over the past month - sorry! In my defence I haven't had anything to blog about. My writing is still on hold and I haven't read much either. I've only managed four books this month, which seems like hardly anything. Anyway, once again I'm late with my read of the month, but here it is:

Isabel Wolff's The Very Picture of You.

I have been waiting and waiting for a new book from Isabel Wolff ever since putting down her previous book A Vintage Affair over two years ago, which I absolutely loved. It was a long wait, but it was definitely worth it, as The Very Picture of You is a brilliant read and one I couldn't recommend highly enough.

The main character in this book is Ella Graham, a portrait painter who absolutely loves what she does. I loved how throughout the story we were introduced to a number of Ella's portrait sitters, all with a story of there own to tell and who were all interesting in their own way. It was a nice way of meeting some secondary characters and I felt it really tied the story together well as it meant there was focus on other stories and characters aside from Ella and her close friends and family .There was a great build up of suspense and mystery throughout the length of the book which kept me turning the pages, eager to find out the truth.

To reveal anything else about the book, I fear will ruin the story for anyone that hasn't read it and still wishes to, so I'm not going to reveal any more other than say that this is great read that you regret picking up.

I'm sure I said this last month, but this month, I am defintely going to try and read much more. I picked up Georgie Carter's (Ruth Saberton) Christmas book the other week while I was in Sainsbury's, so I am going to read that before the big day, which I have found out today is only 52 sleeps away!  I've also got Ali Harris' debut book Miracle on Regent Street on my To Be Read pile aswell, so I'll be reading that shortly too.